French · Parisian Scenes

Rêve parisien

Parisian Dream

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To Constantin Guys
Àtoà · prepositionpreposition marking Constantin
ConstantinConstantinConstantin · proper noun, masculine, singularhead of the phrase
GuysGuysGuys · proper nounpart of the name, with Constantin
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I
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Of that terrible landscape,
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Such as no mortal ever saw,
GrammarThe pronoun «en» «en» stands in for «de + noun», here «de ce paysage» (of that landscape). «jamais mortel n'en vit» = 'no mortal ever saw any of it'. «vit» is the passé simple of «voir», the literary past tense for narration.
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This very morning still the image,
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Hazy and far-off, enraptures me.
Wordravir «ravir» means 'to enrapture, to carry off, to delight'. «me ravit» = 'enraptures me, sweeps me away'. The verb keeps a trace of its older sense of seizing or abducting, fitting for a dream-vision that takes hold of the poet.
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Sleep is full of miracles!
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By a singular whim
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I had banished from these spectacles
GrammarThe pluperfect (plus-que-parfait) «avais banni» is the plus-que-parfait: «avoir» in the imperfect plus the past participle. It marks an action completed before another past moment — 'I had banished' — setting up the dream-world as already arranged before the scene begins.
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All irregular vegetation,
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And, a painter proud of my genius,
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I savored within my picture
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The intoxicating monotony
Wordenivrant(e) «enivrant» means 'intoxicating', from «enivrer», 'to make drunk' (related to «ivre», drunk). Pairing it with «monotonie» is a deliberate paradox: the sameness of metal, marble, and water is itself heady, like wine.
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Of metal, of marble, and of water.
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A Babel of staircases and arcades,
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It was an infinite palace
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Full of basins and of cascades
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Falling into the gold, matte or burnished;
Wordmat / bruni «mat» means 'matte, dull, without sheen'; «bruni» (past participle of «brunir») means 'burnished, polished to a shine'. The two opposite finishes of gold show the poet relishing the precise textures of his metallic dream.
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And ponderous cataracts,
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Like curtains of crystal
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Hung suspended, dazzling,
GrammarPronominal verb «se suspendre» «se suspendre» is the pronominal form of «suspendre». The reflexive «se» gives an intransitive, almost passive sense — 'to hang, to be suspended' — so the cataracts seem to hang of their own accord rather than being hung by anyone.
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From walls of metal.
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Not with trees, but with colonnades
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The sleeping pools surrounded themselves
Grammars'entourer de «s'entourer de» = 'to surround oneself with'. The pronominal verb takes «de» before what does the surrounding: «s'entouraient... de colonnades» = 'surrounded themselves with colonnades'. Note the inversion — the object «de colonnades» is fronted ahead of the verb for emphasis.
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Where gigantic naiads,
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Like women, gazed at themselves.
Wordse mirer «se mirer» means 'to look at one's reflection, to be mirrored'. The naiads (water nymphs) «se miraient» in the pools — gazing at their own image in the water, as in a mirror («miroir»).
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Sheets of water spread out, blue,
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Between quays of pink and green,
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For millions of leagues,
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Toward the bounds of the universe:
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There were unheard-of stones
Wordinouï(e) «inouï» literally means 'unheard-of' (from «ouïr», an archaic verb 'to hear') and so 'extraordinary, unprecedented'. The diaeresis on the «ï» signals that «ou-ï» is sounded as two separate syllables.
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And magical waves, there were
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Immense mirrors dazzled
Wordla glace «glace» means both 'mirror' and 'ice' (and 'ice cream'). Here it is 'mirrors' — «d'immenses glaces» — though the icy sense glints through in this cold, crystalline scene. «éblouies» = 'dazzled', past participle agreeing with the feminine plural «glaces».
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By all that they reflected!
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Carefree and taciturn,
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Ganges rivers, in the firmament,
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Poured the treasure of their urns
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Into chasms of diamond.
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Architect of my enchantments,
Wordla féerie «féerie» (from «fée», fairy) means a fairy-tale spectacle, an enchantment — and specifically the lavish stage-shows of fairyland popular in Baudelaire's day. The poet casts himself as the author and «architecte» of his own such wonder.
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I made, at my will,
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Beneath a tunnel of gemstones
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A tamed ocean pass through;
GrammarCausative «faire» + infinitive «faire» followed by an infinitive means 'to make/have something happen'. «Je faisais... passer un océan» = 'I made an ocean pass'. The construction is split across the stanza, with «faisais» up top and its infinitive «passer» here. «dompté» = 'tamed, subdued' (from «dompter»).
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And everything, even the color black,
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Seemed polished, bright, iridescent;
Wordfourbi «fourbir» means 'to scour, to burnish, to polish up' (as one polishes a weapon or metal). «fourbi» = 'scoured bright, gleaming'. Even blackness, in the dream, is buffed to a shine — keeping the whole vision hard, clean, and metallic.
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The liquid enshrined its glory
Wordenchâsser «enchâsser» means 'to set, to mount (a gem in a setting), to enshrine'. The water sets its own brilliance like a jewel within «le rayon cristallisé» — the crystallized ray of the next line — fusing liquid and mineral.
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In the crystallized ray.
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No star, moreover, no trace
Grammar«nul» as a negative determiner «nul» means 'no, not any', a more emphatic, literary equivalent of «aucun». It agrees in gender and number: «nul astre» (m. sg.), «nuls vestiges» (m. pl.). It normally pairs with «ne», but in poetry the «ne» is often dropped, as here.
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Of sun, even low on the horizon,
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To light up these marvels,
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Which shone with a fire of their own!
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And over these moving marvels
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Hovered (a terrible novelty!
GrammarSubject–verb inversion The verb «planait» (was hovering, from «planer») comes before its subject «Un silence d'éternité», which arrives only two lines later. Fronting the place («sur ces mouvantes merveilles») and the verb suspends the sentence, letting the silence land as the final, weighted word.
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All for the eye, nothing for the ears!)
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A silence of eternity.
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II
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On reopening my eyes full of flame
Grammar«en» + gerund «en» plus the present participle forms the gerund («le gérondif»), expressing the manner or moment of an action: 'on/while/by doing'. «En rouvrant mes yeux» = 'on reopening my eyes', marking the instant of waking that snaps the dream shut.
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I saw the horror of my hovel,
Wordle taudis «taudis» means 'hovel, slum, squalid lodging'. After the diamond palace, the single word drops the poet — and us — back into a wretched real room. The whole second part turns on this contrast.
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And felt, returning into my soul,
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The sting of accursed cares;
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The clock with its funereal voice
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Was brutally striking noon,
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And the sky was pouring down darkness
Wordles ténèbres «ténèbres» is a feminine plural noun with no singular: 'darkness, gloom, shadows'. That the sky pours «des ténèbres» at high noon completes the reversal — the dream was self-lit, the waking world is dark even at midday.
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Upon the sad, numbed world.
Wordengourdi «engourdi» means 'numb, torpid, sluggish' (from «engourdir», 'to numb'). It closes the poem on a world deadened and half-asleep — the opposite of the dazzling, hyper-alert dream.

The particulars

The text: Les Fleurs du mal, Charles Baudelaire. Parisian Scenes.
Words: Every word of the text, by letter.
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